Swatch Skiers Cup: the open of extreme skiing

Along a ridge at the top of a wide, wide powder slope – a playground of crested spines, giant natural rock booters and steep drops – stands a starting gate and a line of men wearing blue or red competition bibs. Dramatic scenery surrounds them, the Matterhorn’s distinctive head cutting into a bright blue sky among the serried ranks of Swiss peaks. The freeskiers of Team Americas and Team Europe, eight per team, look serious, their minds on the challenge perhaps.

A helicopter whirls above their heads. Then, the first rider is away. Sverre Liliequist of Sweden flies through the powder, sending it swirling behind him, sloughing after him, dropping a cliff with him. I’m glued, adrenalin coursing, as he dodges into a valley, emerges to double backflip off a cliff in a cloud of snow, then speeds to the finish, throwing in a quick retro spread eagle just for fun, laughing with the thrill of it all when he arrives.

It’s day two of the Swatch Skiers Cup in Zermatt, an event where skiers from each team take it in turns to go head to head in two contests, big mountain and backcountry slopestyle, competing for a monster-sized ski boot trophy, and a wad of cash. This is big mountain day, and going up against Sverre is Josh Daiek of the US, who cuts a fast line through the top of the slope, pops off a rock and pulls a smooth backflip before cruising to the finish. They each take a mere minute or so to descend the face, and to my inexperienced eyes, both runs look awesome. Who will take the win? The three judges each hold up a card – red if they think Americas should win, blue for Europe – and Sverre is the victor. It must have been the double backflip. With seven more pairings and a second round to go before the day is out, there’s still all to play for. But four minutes later, I know that Team Europe are the big mountain victors.

That’s because, while I feel like I’m right there at the slope, I’m actually in my Zermatt hotel room watching Access All Areas, a super high-quality daily online video of happenings from the event, broadcast each evening. The Skiers Cup, conceived a couple of years ago by Sverre and his Team Europe captain, fellow Swede Kaj Zackrisson, has an aim, to make the disciplines of freeskiing more accessible and more fun to watch. Plus, and what I’m looking forward to most, here in Zermatt there’s plenty of chance for holidaymakers to mingle with the pros and, since the backcountry slopestyle contest is taking place on a face within the ski area, to watch live action close up and personal.

The Skiers Cup takes place over the course of a week, with the timing and exact location of the two one-day contests depending on conditions. The man with the plan is head ski guide and Zermatt local Samuel Anthamatten. “Avalanches can happen,” he says. “We have to do calculations to keep the risk as low as possible.” But he also wants the event to showcase the realities of freeriding. “We didn’t bomb the big mountain slope – they don’t do that in Alaska – but we cut the cornices. When they fall on a slope, that puts more pressure on it than a skier, so we could tell what was safe.” The final test is Samuel, a pro freeskier himself, being the first down the face, to check his calculations are correct. All good.

The slope is broad enough to give enough options for the 16 skiers to do their two runs – “spines, rollers, playful terrain, enjoyment for every style,” Sam says. And his job isn’t over once the contest starts. “I’m in constant contact with the guides and helicopters, it’s stressful – my heart was beating faster when Sverre took the backflip.”

In the end, since conditions change, he stops the contest halfway through the second round for safety reasons, and Europe is declared the winner on points so far. But that doesn’t dent the atmosphere. “You don’t often get a big mountain competition where it all comes together – face, venue, conditions,” says Team Americas captain Cody Townsend. “Team Americas had a rough day, but everyone was stoked to be out there, to ride a face like that.”

When choosing their teams, the captains vie to bring together pros with both freeride and freestyle skills, since everyone competes in both contests. A draw decides the first skier in each pairing, with the opposing captain picking the challenger, based on his team’s skill set. On big mountain day, Cody’s tactic is to send those with big mountain experience first – hence Freeride World Tour 2012 champion Josh Daiek is up against Sverre. “Oh, and he’s got one of the best backflips I’ve ever seen,” adds Cody.

In the third pairing it’s Cody himself who takes Team Americas’ first victory, over Richard Permin of France. But with only two further wins for his team, there’s no stopping Europe running away with the contest 9-4. Captain Kaj clearly thinks he’s picked the perfect team, saying, “It’s so great to see them ski. Only me and Sverre have some years on our necks, but these young guys are so well-rounded they can do freestyle and big mountain.”

Both around 40, Kaj and Sverre are the veterans of the competition, but in the freeride game, experience counts for a lot. “It takes years of experience to know when the snow is going to move,” says Kaj. “If skis cut in on a long spine, you have to move to the next one, do a little traverse.” Cody adds, “There’s lots of slough, mini pockets release here and there. Kaj and Sverre have that happen and can still run their lines – 20 years of experience shows.”

The big mountain contest is heli access only, spectating only possible by video. But a few days later, early morning, we holidaymakers can take the train up to Gornergrat to watch the backcountry slopestyle contest. As it chuffs slowly uphill, we’re blown away by the closeness of the Matterhorn, a sunlit spike against a clear sky, soaring over the still shady slopes. But then I’m distracted by the skiers being there too. Rory Bushfield of Canada is lying on the floor stretching, Markus Eder of Italy, one of the youngest riders at 22, is plugged into his music, no doubt thinking about his line, but he still responds sweetly when I tap him on the shoulder, interrupting his focus, to wish him luck.

All week, as well as recce skiing together on down days the pros play ice hockey and hang out. The competition is ridiculously friendly, even as they’re skiing to win they congratulate each other on good lines and landed tricks. Although they’re competing head to head, says Paddy Graham, the only UK skier on Europe’s team, it doesn’t really matter what the other guy does. “I have my line in my head and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not trying to beat the other guy, just do the biggest I can on my line.”

A crowd soon assembles at the bottom of the face looking expectantly up, some sitting on giant beanbags, many looking through binoculars. The 300m course, the lower half strewn with giant, park-style jumps, has been designed by one of the judges, Julien Regnier of France, a renowned skier (and, it turns out, Team Europe’s 2014 captain). The whole thing is fully in view of the spectators.

Before long commentator – and Zermatt Access All Areas presenter – Chris Bachmann is whipping up applause for the riders, detailing flips, tricks and the choice of line in three languages. After the big mountain loss, what are Team Americas’ tactics? “The opposite of what you might think,” says Cody. “Do tricks they can land 80 per cent of the time, so we can get it back.”

Kaj and Rory Bushfield of Canada are up first, and Kaj leads the charge, heading lookers’ right (as Chris coins it) into the shade, takes massive air, spins, but then crashes. Recovering quickly he hits another kicker then ends his run by landing a glorious spin, coming in to the crowd’s roars as Chris yells “Let’s hear it for Rastamaaaaaan” in honour of his dreads. But when Rory starts with a 360 from a rock at the top and finishes with a cleanly landed 720 off a massive kicker near the end, Team Americas’ tactics seem to be going to plan – first run won.

As the round hots up, riders seem to crash almost as often as they land their flips and spins, and Team Europe wins run after run. Paddy crashes his backflip, but steals a march over Greg Lindsey of the US who twice loses a ski. Nicolas Vuignier of Switzerland can risk a safe run after Josh Daiek has to get help to find his lost skis. Rory is Team Americas’ hero of the round – winning a second time, against Sverre, when he replaces injured team mate Tim Dutton. It’s all crowd-pleasing stuff. And becomes even more so for the second round. With Team Europe now the clear winners of the competition, it’s open season for “go big or go home” and, now they’ve got the measure of the course, the skiers crash less.

Before he sets off, Cody signals that he needs applause to gee him up, then to resounding cheers attempts a double backflip, but crashes, leaving the round open for Kaj, who knocks out a super-smooth 360 off the massive kicker at the bottom – Chris now calling it the “money booter” since it’s where the riders can go biggest in full view of the crowd. Nicolas Vuignier, one of the youngest in the comp at 22, forgets safe this time, combines a massive spin and flip and, to the high-pitched excitement of Chris, the unrestrained glee of Kaj and the cheers of the crowd, lands it for victory over Greg Lindsey. The last pairing pits Paddy against Cody. Paddy pulls a couple of flips out of the bag, landing one cleanly, to win and make the overall final score, including the big mountain results, 21-11 to Europe.

By the time Kaj has held the 21kg ski boot trophy aloft and sprayed champagne around, and all the riders have piled in together for a team photo like a bunch of excited kids, everyone’s on such a high there’s only one thing to do. We all hit the slopes to warm up, then head down to Zermatt for the after parties – everyone’s invited.

First up, there’s the official prize giving ceremony at the event village in Zermatt. Oversized cheques are handed over, $20,000 for Team Europe and $10,000 for Americas, along with a Swatch each. More champagne is sprayed, and après-ing visitors have photos taken with the trophy and the skiers. Everyone mingles at the temporary event ice bar, warming up with glühwein and raclette.

Later at the after party at the Vernissage club – dress up theme 1930s mountain lifestyle – the skiers are singing happy birthday to Sverre, dancing and drinking along with the rest of us. Kaj is in knickerbockers with pompoms round the knees, Sverre sports shorts-dungarees, Sam Anthamatten is wearing the traditional Zermatt guides’ uniform, all the pros are wearing (highly covetable) Skiers Cup blazers – keeping them on even when, in the hot and crowded club, many get their (not unattractive) torsos out. If this is freeride for the masses, bring it on.

Need to know The Swatch Skiers Cup returns to Zermatt January 4 to 10, with new team leaders Julien Regnier of France for Europe and JP Auclair of Canada for Americas. Events are free to watch on swatchskierscup.com.